What does it mean that Jesus' face shone like the sun?

The transformation indicated here was from a subject, humble, obedient Man to one of supreme glory and authority, One Who is to fill the universe with the glory of God in the world to come. It is the kingdom of the Son of Man, but He will use that kingdom in supreme administration and authority in order to fill the universe with the glory of God, and at the centre of that scene His own glory will shine forth. "His face did shine as the sun" would suggest a place of supreme power and authority. "And His raiment was white as the light" would refer to His intrinsic purity as One Who had ever been marked by moving in the light, and Who had no darkness in Him at all.

His countenance shone as the sun shines in its strength. What a symbol of glory—divine and universal glory as the Son of Man. The Lord Jesus Christ is thus depicted in a striking, arresting way.

In returning now to Israel with the two tables of stone, Moses did not realize that the skin of his face was shining. This was a reflection of the glory of the Lord, not a full manifestation of God's glory, which is seen only in the Lord Jesus. In Matthew 17:2 we read of the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus, and that “His face shone as the sun.” Only the skin of Moses' face shone, for this was a reflection exterior to Moses himself. But the face of the Lord Jesus shines with a brightness that comes from within, not a reflection (2 Cor. 4:6), for He is God.

Matthew says" And his face did shine as the sun." The sun is the emblem of supreme, authority, and that will belong to Him who is disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. What we have here is the official glory of the Lord. If it is, a question of any office of the Lord, He gets no glory from the office, but the office gets glory from Him. All before Him typifying Him got glory from their office, as Aaron did; but not so He. All the glory that is so wonderfully displayed here is not reflected glory, it radiates from Himself. When He came down here He laid aside His glory. You get a little ray shining out in Gethsemane, overpowering the armed crowd; they fell back. There was a glory which could not be hid His moral glory — this must come out. It is impossible for any mind or any number of minds to imagine such a character as the Son of God. Take any book, any imagination, you cannot compare them with the Gospels; you can only contrast them, the difference is so vast.

Only "some" were to be given this privilege, that is, Peter, James and John, who were given a precious preview of the kingdom in Ch.17:13. For though the Lord insists that suffering must come first, He wants none to be discouraged, but all to have utter confidence in the prospect of His coming in majestic glory.Only six days intervened before the three disciples witnessed the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus. Luke says, "about eight days after these things," for no doubt he counts the day the Lord spoke, and the day of the transfiguration, while Matthew counts only the intervening days. We are not told what mountain was the scene of this wondrous event, but the high mountain apart reminds us of the majestic greatness of the coming kingdom, high above and apart from the institutions of men. He alone is transfigured, His face shining as the sun, His clothing as white as the light. The shining of His face emphasizes His deity, for the sun is too bright to look upon, significant of the radiance of the glory of God. The pure whiteness of His clothing teaches the apostles perfection of all His attributes. The vision is too dazzling for the natural man to take in or understand, and even Peter fails to discern its great significance.

First, then, we find that when the Lord had taken Peter, James, and John his brother, and had brought them up into an high mountain apart, He "was transfigured before them, and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light." (Matt. 17:1-2.) Without entering at this time into the special character of this scene, its relation to the period at which our blessed Lord had arrived in His ministry in the midst of Israel, or its dispensational significance, we may, in a few words, consider what this transfiguration was in regard to Himself personally. When He ascended the mountain in company with His disciples, He was, to all outward appearance, but a man amongst men. To the carnal eye there was nothing to distinguish Him from Peter, James, or John. Whatever those whose eyes were anointed saw, or we have since learned from the Scriptures by the teaching of the Spirit of God, there was nothing to indicate any difference between the body which God had prepared for Him and the "earthen vessels" of His disciples. But while on the mount this wondrous change (termed transfiguration) occurred. What, then, was its nature? May we not say, that it was His essential purity or holiness breaking forth and transfusing the vessel in which it was enshrined, so that He stood before His disciples as a being of light? For "His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light." This vessel — His body — shrouded at other times these rays of His beauty and glory, but now, permitted to stream out unhinderedly, they penetrated through and irradiated both His body and His garments, so that He was actually and livingly glorified before their eyes.

If this were so, Christ, as He was in His transfiguration, is the presentation of what believers will be when they are glorified with Him. Hence, indeed, Moses and Elias, since they appeared in glory when they talked with Him (Luke 9:30-31), typify saints in this condition; and herein lies the significant connection in the use of the word on which we are commenting. Christ on the mount shows us what His people will be when He comes to receive them unto Himself; but then this mighty change is morally commenced in them while here. Thus, in Rom. 12:2, the apostle says, "Be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed (transfigured) by the renewing of your mind," etc. This Scripture shows that our transfiguration must commence from within; for the apostle enjoins nonconformity to the world, and transfiguration by the renewing of our mind. Confining our attention to this single point, the question may well be put, But how is this to be accomplished? Passing now to 2 Cor. 3:18, the answer is found. There we see Christ, not on the mount, but glorified at the right hand of God. All the glory of God shines forth from His face, and His face, unlike that of Moses when he talked with the children of Israel, is unveiled. Moreover, all believers are brought into that place where they can gaze on that glory. "We all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord." Then we learn the further thing, that it is by beholding we "are changed (transfigured) into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." This is the moral effect of having Christ in glory before our souls. He is the standard or model; and we, while beholding, are through the power of the Spirit gradually transfigured on towards the likeness of Him on whom we gaze. We say "on towards," because while here in the body we can never be completely conformed to the glorified Christ. It is therefore a gradual moral transfiguration; every ray of His glory that falls upon our souls being made, through the operation of the Holy Ghost, to have this effect.

The transfiguration recorded in the opening verses of Matthew 17 are interpreted for us in the words of the Lord in the last verse of the previous chapter, "There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom". The supreme and personal glory of Jesus, the Son of Man, was seen by the disciples when "His face did shine as the sun", and the glory of His kingdom was in evidence in His raiment "white as the light". In His humiliation, "His visage was so marred more than any man", but, in the day of His kingdom, His visage will be resplendent in a glory that displays Him as the Supreme One.

Only Luke speaks of the Lord praying at the time He was transfigured (v.29). The fashion of His countenance was altered. Matthew speaks of this as His face shining as the sun. This reminds us of His personal intrinsic glory, while His clothing, white and glistening, speaks of the glory with which He is invested, connected with the offices He occupies. These glories will be displayed to the world only in the age to come, the manifested millennial kingdom of 1000 years, but a sample of this is given here for our present encouragement.

Moses and Elijah appeared and spoke to the Lord. Moses represents those saints of God who have died but will be raised and have their part in the heavenly kingdom. Elijah stands for those who have been translated into heaven without dying. The earthly side of the kingdom is represented by the three apostles. Moses and Elijah spoke to the Lord about His death to be accomplished at Jerusalem (v.31). How much more sympathy they had with the Lord's exercises than did the apostles!

Writing of the Transfiguration scene later, Peter says with ecstasy, "We were eye witnesses of His majesty." What he saw was to him "the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, which confirms the interpretation just given (2 Peter 1:16-17). The Saviour's face shone as the sun. As the Sun of righteousness He will yet arise upon this poor earth (Mal. 4:2). The sun is the emblem of supreme authority, which God will ere long put into the hands of the Crucified. His raiment, too, became white as the light, suggestive of the absolute purity of His coming administration. Two men appeared in glory with Him — Moses and Elias. The first was one who had died, the other was translated without seeing death. These are representative characters, speaking to us of the entire company of the glorified saints, many of whom will experience resurrection at the Lord's return, others being changed in a moment, and caught up to meet Him in the air (1 Thess. 4:16-17). All these will be displayed in glory with Him when He comes to inaugurate His kingdom. Moses and Elijah were in conversation with the Lord; their theme (Luke tells us) was "His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem." This will be the everlasting theme of the saints above. The scene that was enacted outside the gate of Jerusalem, at the place called Calvary, will live in the memory of both God and His redeemed while eternal ages roll. There was laid in blood the immutable basis of all our blessing.

"And His countenance was as the sun shines in his strength." Nothing can more strikingly picture His power and glory than this figure of the noonday sun. As the greatest of God's visible works, it is the symbol of supreme authority, "the greater light" which He has created "to rule the day." This was the glory in which John and his companions beheld him when He "was transfigured before them, and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light." (Matt. 17:2.) The transfiguration was the testimony which God gave to chosen witnesses of "the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:16); and in this book, where his coming "with clouds" is the great climax to which everything tends, we behold Him clothed in the same glory.